For years, FPGA technology has been
a major cornerstone of board level
product design for embedded software
radio and communication systems.
FPGAs are ideal for implementing the data
formatting, timing, and the specialized glue
logic needed to connect real-time peripherals
like modems, A/D converters and digital
receivers to programmable processors.
However, with their newly acquired DSP
capabilities, FPGAs are now expanding
these traditional roles to help offload
computationally-intensive digital signal
processing functions from the processor.